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TREASURE TROVE OF INFORMATION FROM DUTCH ARCHIVES
[MANUSCRIPT - HOLLAND]. [Notes from Municipal Documents, 1544 to 1726].
[Egmond?], ca. 1726. Folio (32 x 20.5 cm). Manuscript in brown ink on paper with brief notes on thousands of documents from Dutch towns and villages. Contemporary half red roan, marbled sides.
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A collection of notes from about two thousand mostly municipal documents of more than eighty Dutch towns, villages, polders and other regions, about half in the northern quarter of the province of Holland (north of Amsterdam and Haarlem), and a few more in the Frisian Islands. The next largest group comes from The Hague and eight neighbouring towns. Others cover three towns from the area around Naarden, east of Amsterdam, two from the north-east polder (across the Zuyder Zee), two from the region between Utrecht and Gouda, and fourteen from areas south of the river Lek. They cover every imaginable subject (resolutions, complaints, requests, charters, privileges and other documents concerning religious disputes, government, land ownership, fisheries, trade, transport, water control, natural disasters, etc.), and could be a valuable research aid, both as a guide to the content of surviving documents scattered through numerous archives and as a brief summary of information from documents that have not survived at all. We can here offer only a few random samples: the capture of a Naarden murderer, Cornelis Jansz. Vliegh, in 1584 and his attempts to resist arrest; the destruction by fire of the church in Heemskerk in May 1589; a complaint from Maassluis about damage done to ships in 1628 and sailors thrown overboard; an April 1675 order that the regents of Niedorp must be of the Reformed religion, but also arranging the election of a Mennonite representative; a dispute concerning the erection of windmills for pumping water in Waterland in March 1649; imposts for the those serving beer in the Hague in 1679; Monnikindam's 1717 request to Czaar Peter the Great (then in Amsterdam) concerning prisoners being held; and thousands more.
The notes -- ranging from two lines to nearly a full column -- are divided into thirty-nine groups (the later contents list subdivides one group and numbers them 1-40) arranged approximately geographically, and arranged chronologically within each group. The thirty-nine groups are loosely divided into three larger groups, 1-5 being The Hague and neighbouring towns, 6-23 following a heading, "Verscheyden Kleyne Steden van Holland" (various small towns of Holland, though 11-18 are actually further south), and the rest following a heading "Verscheyden Dorpen int Noorderquartier" (various villages in the northern quarter).
The notes were compiled around 1726, so they no doubt include much information from archives that have not survived. The Hague is the only major city included, no doubt because of its position as the seat the national government, and it is has the largest number of documents, on 32 pages. It is notable, however, that Egmond (including documents concerning the Counts and Countesses of Egmond) fills 23 pages and that the manuscript seems to concentrate on the northern quarter of Holland (though Vianen and Woerden are also well represented). It may therefore originate in or around Egmond (the paper comes from an Egmond mill). The towns and other areas covered, with the pages, are:
1. The Hague (1-32)
2. Scheveningen (33-36)
3. Leidsendam (37-38)
4. Rijnsburg (39-41)
5. Rijswijk (42-44)
6. Muiden (49-54)
7. Naarden (55-59)
8. Weesp (60-63)
9. Woerden (64-72, 65-66)
10. Oudewater (67-70)
11. Geertruidenberg (71-75)
12. Woudrichem (called Worcum), Lande van Altena & Lovenstein castle (77-82)
13. Heusden (84-92)
14. Vianen (93-107)
15. Asperen & Heukelum (108-109)
16. Leerdam & IJsselstein (110-113)
17. Klundert (Nievaart) & Willemsdtad (115-117)
18. Zevenbergen, Buren & Nieuwpoort (119-123)
19. Vlaardingen (124-127)
20. Maassluis, Maasland & Schipluiden (128-134)
21. Poeldijk (135)
22. Katwijk a.d. Rijn & Katwijk aan Zee (135)
23. Spaarndam (136)
24. Schagen & neighbouring villages, incl. Barsingerhorn, Kolhorn, Niedorp, Winkel, Zijdewind (137-148)
25. Waterland & its villages, incl. Broek in Waterland, Monnikendam, Landsmeer (149-167)
26. villages & lakes around and east of Alkmaar, incl. Oudkarspel, Langedijk, Warmenhuizen, Hoogwoud, Opmeer, Spanbroek, Sint Maarten, Oterleek, Nyenburg, Schoorlsedijk, De Bergermeer (179-187)
27. Grootebroek (198-200)
28-29. Zijpe & Wieringerwaard (201-207)
30. Hondsbosse & Petten (209-218)
31. Graft & De Rijp (219-222)
32. Zaandam (called Saardam), Oostzaan & Westzaan (223-233)
33. Egmond (235-257)
34. Heiloo & Limmen (258-262)
35. Wormer & Jisp (269-275)
36. Assendelft (277-281)
37. Beverwijk, Wijk aan Zee, Krommenie & Heemskerk (283-294)
38. Texel, Eijerland, Wieringen, Vlieland, Terschelling, Marken, Ens, Urk & Callantsoog (295-307)
39. Huisduinen, Den Helder & Ameland (309-314)
40. Koegras (315)
The latest documents covered date from 1726. The paper is watermarked LVG [that is, Lubbertus van Gerrevink in Egmond] = Dutch lion with 7 arrows in a crowned circle with "Vryheyt" & "Pro Patria Eiusque Libertate," and with a script "K" in the centre of the sheet, all as in Voorn, Noord-Holland 109 (recorded in 1725), so the manuscript must have been compiled in or around 1726. The manuscript originally collated [A]-[E]12 [F]18 [G]-[O]12 = 174 leaves. During compilation of the manuscript (and after most of the pages had been numbered), the compiler needed an extra leaf after leaf 292, so the blank bifolium H1.12 was removed and wrapped around quire L, its second leaf renumbered, and the later leaves in the manuscript numbered accordingly. This and the fact that the page numbers 65 to 72 were accidentally repeated gives the present pagination: 1-72, 65-72 [bis], 73-172, 175-194, 197-268, 195-196, 269-318, followed by the unpaginated 4-page register of the towns and villages (giving the relevant pages) and further blanks. A simpler register, with the groups numbered, appears on a front endleaf in a later hand.
In fine condition. Both the roan spine and the marbled paper sides are scuffed, but the binding is structurally sound. A valuable aid to research concerning a wide variety of matters in Dutch towns and villages, no doubt including information documented nowhere else.
